A blog about me, my Standard Poodle, Teddy, and whatever else I feel like including.
"[Poodles] are Labradors with a college education. After a day of retrieving, your Lab wants to curl up and snore in front of the fire. A poodle wants to be a fourth at bridge and tell naughty stories." -Anne Rogers Clark

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Teddy, CDX!!!

Although today began dismally with me thinking that I should have stayed in my nice, cozy bed, it had a happy ending (as you can tell by the title). It began raining as I was backing out of the driveway, and continued heavily during the entire 2+ hour drive to the obedience trial. It rained so much, so fast, that my car was difficult to control and fish-tailed on several occasions. Thanks to all-wheel drive (and my guardian angel), I stayed on the road. Normally, I am a good driver and love to drive, but I was a nervous wreck by the time we got there. Oh, and isn't it so much fun to unload crates, gear, and a freshly fluffed poodle in the pouring down rain?

This was a new show for us. We are still green when it comes to showing, but this show definitely had the most distractions that I have ever seen at an obedience trial. At most of the shows that I have been to, the obedience rings are totally separate from the conformation rings and at least one side of the ring is up against a wall. I know, I'm spoiled. Neither was true for this show. The obedience ring was adjoined to the rally ring, and anyone and everyone could walk all the way around the ring. I've never seen so many families with a boat load of unruly kids hanging on ring gating before. They also had a booming PA system with someone who was in love with the sound of her own voice in control of the microphone. But I won't go into the ridiculous announcements that she made. When I walked in and saw the setup, I thought there was no way on earth that we would do well today. I made that horrendous drive for this?

But we made it through, somehow. I was disappointed in our heeling, I had to give an extra command. We've been working so hard on heeling, but he lost his brain temporarily. It wasn't our best performance, but it wasn't our worst by far. I was proud that Teddy held it together under those conditions. You can't see it in the video, but the reason we had trouble with the setup for the broad jump was a row of 4 or 5 kids sitting on the other side of the ring gating and a woman standing right up againsts the gating. Teddy is too friendly for his own good. I was really nervous about his stays. OK, honesty time. You'll figure it out eventually anyway if you watch the second video. There were only three of us entered in the Open A class, and one did not show up. The second dog didn't drop on the recall and he broke his stays. I was so relieved to find out that even though the golden broke, Teddy was a good boy and held his stays. Whew! So- we finally finished our Open title (CDX) with a first place! Yea! Here it is:

A friend of mine thought to film us getting our ribbons, so if you want to see that:

As you can tell, Teddy is such ham, he gets so excited when there is applause. There was a vendor at the show from Texas that made glass dog figurines in clear or colored. He even had poodles in the sporting clip. I treated myself and had him make a black poodle in the sporting cut holding a dumbbell. I thought it turned out really cute, although it's hard to see here.

I was very proud of my sweet boy! Even though I eventually want to try for our UCDX, we can now concentrate on other areas, like rally, agility, and freestyle. So much to do, so little time! That's the benefit and the drawback of owning a poodle- they can do it all!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!! When I watch that video, I don't see any of the faults. I see a Poodle and his owner who are HAPPY to be out there working together. Your patience with Teddy shows in his sheer joy when working with you!

Thank you!!! I hope Teddy enjoys training as much as I do. That is why a lower score doesn't bother me, as long as we are having fun. If it makes him happy to pounce on the dumbbell or flip it on the retrieve, I'll gladly give up a couple of points.